Only a Dream
by Nannermoose
Summary: Julian is getting a little impatient with all of these games. What does that mean for everyone else?
1. Hello, Jenny

**So! Decided to try my hand at fanfiction... Probably not going to be good, so be patient with me... hahah.**

**Um.**

**The Forbidden Game is not mine. Kind of obvious, but yeah c:**

* * *

It was as quiet as it could get in the Shadow World. There would always be the howling wind, and horrible clashes of thunder when lightening struck, and the subtle tapping of snow blasting against every exposed surface, and the far off moans and cries of the wandering creatures that made this world home, but those were all taken as a given. Other than that, the world was quiet.

The figure had hardly a trouble at all finding the entrance to the cave. They were small, dressed in all black, with their hoodie pulled down to shadow their face. The figure was careful to make sure they were alone in the massive stone structure - it would be no good to begin, then discover that one of the monsters was in here with them.

But all was still quiet. All of the outside noise was blocked out in here, leaving only the hollow sound of a place truly massive and the echo of the intruder's feet. Another short peek around assured the outsider that they were alone - perfect.

With no monsters around to stop them, they sat down, forced themselves to concentrate, and chanted to name of a few runes in quick succession. They repeated this little 'spell' until the air before them started to glow. The figure continued to chant, raising their hands towards the light. It grew brighter and brighter, and something began to form at its center.

After the spell hit its climax, the light faded away, and a stick of some fort fell heavily into the figure's hands. They held it, felt its smooth surface, looked over the runes intricately decorating its surface for a long moment.

It was almost inconceivable to the figure that they had so easily retrieved the stave - one would think that the monsters outside would guard something so precious far more closely. Of course, they were sure that the stave was already missed, and if they didn't finish their business soon, the monsters would soon be upon them, but it was still difficult to grasp that they had won. That they had gotten the stave in the first place.

The figure caressed the stave one last time, feeling its power thrum beneath their fingertips. It was difficult to squelch the urge to carve every blasted rune off of it - start all over - when the person retrieved the knife from their pocket. But no, the monsters would be upon the figure twice as fast, and would destroy them twice as furiously if they were to do that rather than what they had originally planned.

Right, they had no more time to dawdle around and think. They quickly carved a series of new runes into the soft wood. It bled as they did so - thick, silver blood - and almost seemed to screamed in pain. Its energy thrummed even more powerfully. The situation was growing more urgent, the figure needed to finish carving and leave, as the monsters could undoubtedly sense the stave's pain. They would find the cave shortly, and if the figure was still there, this little escapade would be for naught.

After carving in the name and setting down the stave, the person did not have to wait very long (thankfully) for something to happen. The shadows along the walls of the cave twitched, twitched again, then began wiggling. They writhed and skittered across the floor, moving towards the space right in front of the stave and the figure. The shadows collected, congealed and began to morph - steadily becoming more human in appearance. The figure watched quietly as shadows formed bone, flesh and skin, as shadows molded into muscular arms and legs to hold the shadowy being up on hands and knees, as pure, snowy white hair grew and fell into place over noble, beautiful face. The figure almost smiled to themselves as they looked down at the fully formed man before them. He was perfect.

The man stayed still for a while, merely staring at the ground. But finally, he managed to lift a shaky hand to gaze at it in wonderment. He clearly never expected to live ever again, this must have been quite the surprise.

Eventually, eyes the color of the sky just before dawn raised to look at his rescuer, but he found that they had turned their back to him. He felt a flash of anger - how dare they turn their back on him? Before that faded into confusion. He stood, looking down at himself - had they turned because he was naked? He could hardly see what the problem in that would be.

A million questions suddenly rushed to his mind, the main one being - why was he back? He could feel all of his memories sitting there, at the tip of his tongue, but at the moment, he was still too groggy to access them. This annoyed the man - he wanted to remember! He hated this feeling of forgetting something important. Particularly the one closest to the tip of his tongue. It started with a 'J' sound. J… J… Je… Jen - Gender? What about his gender? That couldn't be right. Generator? No. Jelly? No, but whatever he was trying to remember sounded like that -

"Who are you? Why did you bring me back?" He spat, fed up with trying to figure out what the mysterious 'J' word could be. It frustrated him to no end that he couldn't think of what the word could be, when it seemed so important.

"You were dead for an entire year, you know." His memories suddenly flooded free at the mysterious person's voice. He knew exactly to whom that sweet lilt belonged to, and it nearly brought him to his knees. "The way things were left wasn't fair, so I fixed things." They explained quietly.

He lurched forward, grabbed their arm and spun them around just as they started to fade from existence right before his eyes. Their eyes met in the split second before the mysterious person completely faded away, and his eyes grew wide. Julian knew exactly who that had been.

* * *

Everything about Jenny had changed in the year since the games. Her interests had changed, her life's direction had changed, **she **had changed. She was newer, somehow - a fresher, more confident update who glowed twice as vibrantly as her past self.

Her parents often wondered what had spurred the change, because indeed, their daughter was very different now. She was confident and driven, and she was fully willing to speak her mind. No more was the timid girl who allowed her boyfriend to think for her! In fact, he was one of the first changes she made - moving Tommy-boy from the center of her attention to the center of the curb's. It had only taken her about a month after the games to realize that it had not only been Julian who was overly controlling, but Tom as well. Except Julian had been a thousand times sexier and more romantic about doing so. After such a discovery, it was only a matter of time for poor Tom.

He was still a friend, though - she still liked him a little, after all - so all he could do was sit around and pray for the day that she'd come running back into his arms.

More had changed than just that, though. Her family noticed her sudden, almost shuddering hatred of games that had seemed to spring out of nowhere. It was hard not to notice in a family that had game night every Thursday. She even hated the completely innocent ones, like Candyland and Apples to Apples.

This hatred was soon followed a few other… noticeable changes, like her neckline plunging a little lower and her jeans getting a little tighter. Gone were the overly modest tops and the girlish, flowery skirts. One thing that the games had taught her was that she was allowed to feel sexy, and that's exactly what her new wardrobe choices made her feel like.

This alone made Audrey proud nearly to the point of tears, but on top of that, eyeliner, mascara and maybe even a little lip gloss had made its way into Jenny's everyday appearance.

Jenny looked completely the part of the beautiful, strong, young woman she had become.

Since the games, Jenny had taken control of her life. She had collected her things, given herself a serious evaluation and figured out what she wanted to do with her life - following in Tom's shadow like a lost puppy simply was **not **going to work anymore. Jenny discovered that she wanted to work with kids - maybe and elementary school teacher - and the college she selected was completely different than her friends'. A whole different part of the country. Yes, she had finally become her own person. She was her own master.

Julian would have been proud.

She felt a brief stab of pain whenever she had that thought. He was the one remainder from her old days that she could not change or get rid of. She knew she should have hated him (he had kidnapped her and her friends, and then commenced into some of the worst psychological torture she had ever heard of. He had been possessive, sadistic, an obsessive stalker, and sometimes, downright creepy. Every facet of him screamed 'unhealthy relationship'), but she still cared for him. She had him to thank for all of the positive changed in her and her friends' lives, and, while he was the reason they were in the Shadow World, he was the reason they had gotten out of there alive. She owed him her life.

Yes, memories of the blue-eyed Shadowman seemed to be the one thing that she and her newly reformed friends seemed incapable of shaking. Julian had taken root in all of them, and she was not the only one that he had managed to end up changing.

Dee had gone off to college like the others. She hadn't quite decided what she was going to **be**, but she was working hard in her classes and was doing well. She found that there were even martial arts clubs and classes, where she could hang out with more people like her.

Audrey had centered her attention on lingual studies. Her appearance was just as immaculate as ever, but the air around her seemed far more relaxed. She was more pleasant and friendly, now. She could take a joke.

Michael was now Audrey's faithful boyfriend. They had finally managed to get together, and it had proved to be a very good choice. Both of them seemed much happier. He had begun his first book, and from what he had let her read so far, it was a slightly embellished (as if it needed to be) recounting of what had happened to them.

Zach had come out of his shell. He was friendly and talked to people and from what she got from their phone conversations, was a well received artist in their home town.

Summer was now his favorite model, now that he had branched into sometimes using people in his artwork. Jenny and the others were sure it would only be a matter of time before the two got together, they both were soft on each other. Aside from that, though, Summer was the least changed - though she was now a clean freak.

Lastly in the line, there was Tom. Oh Tom. He had desperately tried to make things work, but Jenny knew they just wouldn't. He was off studying law now, and they rarely talked, but she head that he had already run through quite a series of blonde haired, green eyed girlfriends. The pathetic display didn't sway her from her choice, though, it actually made her think less of him - but still, she kept him as an old friend. He wasn't entirely pathetic, he had relaxed a bit, and sometimes voiced his feelings, but it was still to rare for Jenny's liking.

She could never go back. She had tasted what it had been like around Julian. That dangerous, beautiful feeling she had gotten. She would never be able to settle for anything less, not with the lasting memory of that feeling in the back of her mind. She couldn't let go and forget it. She couldn't forget Julian.

* * *

Her lasting obsession with the blue-eyed boy had driven her to take a mythology course, just for the hell of it. She was finishing a paper for the class at the moment, waiting for her friends, who were visiting for holiday break, to show up.

Jenny was not going to deny that the class had probably been a mistake. Her professor was growing cranky with her never ending obsession with Shadowmen, runes, and Norse mythology - she was probably going to receive a low grade on this paper, as those were the exact subjects she had written about. But she supposed that it didn't matter. This class had been just for fun, and she'd still be walking out with an alright grade.

Jenny sighed, staring at her nearly finished project. Her problem was that she wanted a great grade. It was somehow proof to Julian that she **did** care about what he was - not that he would ever see. He was dead now.

She shook her head, forcing those thought from her head. She could feel self pity later. Right now, she had to concentrate. She wanted to finish her project before her friends arrived - they'd be doing so with the hour, supposedly. At least she didn't have to go sit outside so they could find the right house. She was back at her parents, her old home, house sitting while they went on a winter vacation. Her friends were perfectly familiar with how to get there.

Jenny managed two more sentences before she was interrupted. "What on Earth?" She asked quietly a moment after the door bell quieted. She glanced at the clock - her friends would have called if they were arriving this early, wouldn't they? Maybe it was the postman… Yeah, it was probably the postman.

She ran a hand through her hair and straightened out the wrinkles in her sweats so she didn't look completely horrendous as she headed for the door.

The sight that greeted her on the doorstep made her freeze. This man was definitely **not **the postman.

_"Hello, Jenny."_

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**And now that I've bored your brains out c: Possibly interesting things happen next chapter, I promise!**

**Oh, and what's with that mysterious person at the beginning? Very interesting...**


	2. What You Asked For

**Thanks to all of you for your really nice reviews! As a thanks... I will continue with a VERY BAD chapter! Wow, I hate this chapter :) But maybe you guys will like it? Hopefully?**

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No further processing of the situation was needed. Jenny shut the door in Julian's face and took off towards the back door. She knew it was not likely, but if she could hop the fence in the backyard and get to the street, she might have a chance.

Jenny cursed herself for even having **thought** that it might be nice to see the white haired shadow man again - much less voiced such a fantasy by writing so many essays about him and his kind. Sure, maybe he'd come to repent and become a good guy (she had asked him to just show up on her doorstep to show his love, after all), but it was more likely that he was here to play another game with her and her friends and she couldn't put herself through that, much less her friends. Not again.

Had she somehow summoned him? She had written his name in runes as an example in some of her papers and maybe-

Julian was waiting for her when she opened the back door. Jenny nearly barreled into him face first, but in an amazing show of reflexes, managed to fall backwards with a startled gasp. The tumble caused her to fall hard on her elbows and butt, and (at least temporarily) she was paralyzed by throbbing pain.

Julian did nothing about this, though. Jenny was surprised when he made no move toward her - but at the same time, it scared her. What if that meant she was in for an even worse fate than she had expected? His eyes stayed stone cold and dead set on her as he very slowly brought his arms up to cross them over his beautifully muscular chest (Lord, she had forgotten just how perfect this guy was).

"I was hoping for at least some sort of greeting before you started running, seeing as I saved you and your friends' lives." He finally grunted, "I see that I'm not going to get as much. Too bad."

His slow step forward was belated enough that Jenny had enough time to shake off her paralysis so that she could quickly scramble back several feet. Julian stopped to watch her with curious eyes for whatever she would do next. She took this chance to carefully get on her feet. Every muscle in her body was tense and ready for her to make a break for it the instant Julian made a move.

Still, even with the fact that the strange situation she had suddenly found herself in was very real, Jenny couldn't believe any of it. This couldn't be possible. The older shadow men couldn't have already decided to bring him back, could they?

Jenny couldn't imagine this being a dream, it was far too real. How was it that Julian was here, standing at her back door? She was hopelessly torn between throwing herself into his embrace and beating him senseless for all that he had put her through, and that scared her even more. She could physically feel herself reverting back to her helpless past self. She felt stupid and slow - she felt like no matter what she ended up doing next, she would somehow still lose to the beautiful man standing before her - how could he be real?

Jenny almost brought a hand up to touch him - just to see if her was really there - but caught herself. Julian noticed the faint movement, though, and his eyes briefly locked onto her hand before flickering back up to her face, "I-I can't believe… Is- Is it really you? You're back? H… Wha- How?" She finally managed. Jesus, she could even **speak** under his heavy gaze!

"I must admit, the way I was brought back was rather… surprising," Julian replied cryptically, "But I am very much alive and back. Did you miss me, Jenny?" As he spoke, a slow smile spread across his lips, and his eyelids drooped.

Her heart thudded painfully in her chest - yes, she **had** missed him, but she was never going to admit that.

Instead, Jenny chose to ignore the question in favor of returning to her own terrified thoughts, "Stay away from my friends, they did nothing to you. You have to business with them."

"Alright." I won't do anything to them," He shrugged before growing very serious, "I fully agree that my business is not with them. It's with you." Noting Jenny's silence at this, her continued, "I feel like this is a second chance for me. You know, to win you over - and I **will **take it. I am fully willing to play a game with you - any game you like - but keep I mind that I **will** win and you **will **be mine. I have really tired of all of this, Jenny, but I am willing to play one last time if that will make you feel better. So now you may choose to go with me quietly, or you can prolong this with a game."

Yes, Jenny had expected this the very second she had seen the blue eyed monster on the other side of her front door, but she still couldn't believe any of this. None of this was possible. Julian was back with the full wrath of a true shadow man, and it seemed like he had no more of the humanity she remembered to spare. To make it worse, she was back to her stupid weak ways - not that it would matter, it seemed like her fate was sealed. He was definitely not going to play fair.

There was no hope for her.

Wait. Jenny couldn't think like that - that was exactly how Julian would want her to think. It would make this whole thing much easier for him if she thought there was absolutely no way out. There had to be something - Jenny refused to believe that her fate was sealed just yet. Call it stupidity, but she would be damned if she was just going to **submit **to him. She was past that. She had grown up and over that.

"I will never let you win, Julian." She spat. He was shocked - enough that it took him a moment to recover when she suddenly disappeared off into another room.

He stood there for a long moment, then sighed heavily, "I guess it's a game, then." Calmly, the white haired boy stepped into the house, and the door behind him immediately slammed shut and locked - as did every other exit to the house. It would do Julian no good if Jenny escaped.

"Is this a game of hide and seek, dear?" Julian called. He could feel she was close by, in the living room or perhaps the bathroom. Either way, she hadn't made a break for the stairs quite yet. That would make it easy for him, even if it was already painfully easy, being that she was trapped in here with him. "I'm fine with that if that is the game you really are choosing to play - but just remember that I'm taking you when I find you. I'm leaving no more room for trickery and cheating on your part."

Jenny cringed from her hiding place in the laundry room cabinet - Julian was sounding really threatening. She remembered his playful lilt from the games, even missed it, now that he sounded to serious (and furious). The first chance she got, she **needed **to get to an exit. If she could just make it out of the house, she could find someone to help her… Who was she kidding? Julian would probably get rid of them. She had a feeling he had no problem with 'ridding the playing field of obstacles'. But even so, if she could get out, maybe she could find a way to get him out of here and away from her.

Julian's call came again, this time, much too close for comfort, "I don't know why you're acting like this, Jenny. I did exactly what you asked for - I came to your door. Why are you so unhappy?" '_This isn't what I meant when I said that_' she thought.

Jenny held her breath when she heard footsteps pass the laundry room, and fade away as he headed for the living room. This was her chance! While he checked the living room, she could sneak in the bathroom just across the hall and out the window!

As quietly as she could, she cracked the cabinet open, just the make sure the coast was clear, then crawled out of the tight space. She wasted no time in dusting off any of the cobwebs she had caught herself in, instead choosing to make a quiet dash for the bathroom (if that was possible). If she could get there fast enough, she could lock the door, which would hopefully get her more time.

The only problem with this plan, though, was that she found the window locked. "Locked?" She squeaked. Locked? They never kept their windows locked?

The only warning she had for what happened next was the quiet click of the locked door behind her coming open.

Jenny shrieked as she was hefted off of the floor and carried into the living room. Julian let her stand on her own at the point, but kept the tight grip on her to keep her from getting away, "Locked. You didn't honestly think I would let you escape, did you? What did I just tell you? I would let you play, but I was going to win no matter what." He sneered viciously, "And now that time has come. Take one last look around, for this will be the last you'll ever see of your precious world."

"You're a-" Before Jenny could add any profanity into that sentence, the door bell rang. Oh god! She had completely forgotten her friends were going to show up! Jenny's frightened gaze shot first to the door, and then back to Julian. He was staring at the door like he might set it on fire at any moment.

Finally, he managed to tear his gaze away from it, though, "We're going now… Before they decide to interrupt."

No! Jenny panicked, and in a moment of sheer irrationality, screamed. Everything quieted for a painfully long time, then there was violent pounding at the door and people yelling her name.

Julian glared down at her with icy fury in his eyes, "**Stupid** girl! What do you think you're doing? If they get in here and catch us, I'll be forced to bring them into all of this, even if we agreed to leave your friends out. Do you want that?!"

Jenny's breath caught in her throat, but she managed a panicked "No!"

Even if it meant sacrificing herself and the life ahead of her, she would protect her friends from the monster before her. She couldn't put them through any of that ever again. Sure, it had had its positive effects, but they were all scarred from it, and she wasn't sure many of the others could make it through something like that ever again. When it really came down to it, Jenny was left with only one choice. She had to go with Julian now, no matter how she felt. And she had to do it before her friends managed to break down the door (which was exactly what they were trying to do at the moment).

"F-fine! I'll go with you! Just hurry up, before they get in!"

Julian gave her a suspicious look, "You'll go with me willingly?"

"For my friends, yes." She replied shakily.

"And this isn't a trick?"

"No." Jenny glanced at the door. Why was he suddenly stalling? She could see the door straining at the hinges. A few more good kicks and it would be all over for her friends, "Come on, Julian! What are you waiting for?"

"I need some sort of proof that this isn't a trick." He suddenly said, the playful lilt she missed so terribly making its return.

"My friends are at stake! Isn't that good enough for you! Julian!" Jenny almost yelled.

"Proof." He demanded again.

Jenny snatched his face up, and without trying to think about it, kissed him. It was hard and fast at first, and she would have quickly pulled away if Julian hadn't slid his hands around her waist and slowed it down to make it more passionate. She suddenly found it too irresistible pull away - oh how she had missed this.

Everything around her seemed to fade away as they continued to kiss, even the fact that her friends were still trying to break down the door, even the situation she was in. Her mind was transporting her through every other time they had kissed - how incredible every single one of them was. Maybe she could go with him… Maybe it wouldn't be so bad…

"Jenny! What the hell are you doing?! What the hell is going on?! …Who the hell is that?!" Jenny snatched herself away from Julian and back to reality. She looked up at her friends, who were now standing on her broken down door looking at the scene in horror.

Hot shame welled up in her, and spread all across her cheeks. What had she just been doing? Had she really forgotten everything that was going on simply because of a kiss? She had thought herself stronger than that… Better than the horrible, weak thoughts that she had just been having.

"Jenny!" Dee cried again, "What is going on?!"

* * *

**I didn't proof read this, so I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't make any major mistakes :P**

**Uh oh! What will her friends think of Julian and Jenny kissing?! Is Tom there? Will I continue to write horrible cliffhangers?**


	3. We'll Miss You

**Hi there everybody! Here's another installment of the story - in which my writing and storytelling skills get steadily worse than the last two chapters :D Yaaaay!**

* * *

"What does it look like?" Julian asked hotly before Jenny could muster up her voice. Her heart lurched when all of her friends gazes locked on him at the sound of his voice, it was obvious to Jenny that they remembered the elemental water-on-rock tone of his voice **very well.**

Summer was already quaking. Jenny was surprised the poor girl was even standing, "Jenny…" The small girl started, "Jenny… I-is that… Who I think it is?"

Jenny really didn't want to answer. She really didn't. There was something about denying the smaller girls question that made the whole situation feel less real - something that she was wishing for with all of her heart right now. So instead of answering Summer (or even meeting her gaze), Jenny chose to just stare at the floor.

"Jenny!" Dee's voice was getting a horrible, desperate crack to it, "What is going on!" '_My life falling to shambles_' Jenny replied mentally. "Please talk to us! This-this can't be happening!"

Julian was very amused by all of this - it almost put him in a good mood about the whole situation. But not quite - he really didn't enjoy seeing his lovely Jenny standing beside him so close to tears, no matter how evil he was. He would have liked to gather her up in his arms to comfort her, but he was all too aware that doing so really would make her cry. He could practically feel the waves of shame rolling off of her from being caught by her friends - and the undercurrent of worry over what he would do to them now that they knew he was here.

Well, he didn't actually want to hurt Jenny - so he would try it her way first. What happened after that all depended on whether her friends had gotten some brains since their last encounter or not.

"It shouldn't be too hard to figure out," He started. Everyone in the room tensed, "I'm back, and Jenny has decided to go with me back to the Shadow World. You see, both of us-"

"That's a lie!" Julian went to glare at the person brave enough to cut him off - only to see it was his favorite human! Oh, how he had missed **Tommy**!

Tom flinched slightly under Julian's fiery gaze, but forced himself to stay strong. Sure, he had blamed Julian many a time as the reason that Jenny had broken up with him - but he had never really meant it. He knew she was better than that, he knew she was stronger than that. "She doesn't love you, and she would never go with you willingly. Not unless you threatened her. And if you did - we would have to stop you. We won't let you bully us into anything ever again!" Tom yelled.

There was a chorus of agreement, and Jenny even looked up through her shameful daze to stare at him in shock.

Julian, however, was unimpressed. He met Tom's eyes evenly and held them for a long moment - eventually, Tom was forced to look down.

"Ah, youth." The blue eyed boy began, "You think you're so strong. That as long as you will it, you can do anything." His voice was like ice - glaciers sliding over other glaciers. The very sound of it sent visible chills down Jenny and her friends spines.

Tom, amazingly, wasn't ready to back down yet, though. He looked up to meet Julian's eyes again - "But you- You're the youngest Shadow man. You can't call us young when you yourself are the youngest." It was a stupid argument - but it was buying him time to think of something -anything- to get Jenny out of here.

"Not anymore." Julian replied in a (mockingly?) good natured lilt. "The Shadow Men created three more, seeing as I was such a failure. As far as I know, they don't have any real thoughts of their own, though. Their only use is following orders - can't do anything for themselves."

"So the Shadow men got angry and brought you back?" Michael asked warily.

Julian's only answer was a small smirk. Oh - that was a secret… for now. He figured that if he needed to, he would spring the truth at just the right moment. The results would be absolutely **delicious**.

The others were still staring at him with varying mixtures of fear and determination, while his Jenny had returned her gaze to the floor. She was no doubt expecting him to rid himself of their troubling presence any moment now - but he knew what that would do. He wouldn't give her any reason to hate him (aside from the necessary kidnapping, but he could do nothing about that one), he didn't want her to have something to hold on to when resisting him. He wanted to weaken her.

"Yes, well, this has been a lovely debate - but Jenny and I really need to be going soon, so I will set you straight:" Jenny flinched beside him, obviously expecting that setting straight to be something physical, "First of all, she did choose to go with me willingly. She was even rushing me to go! And second… Well, I think that kiss you burst in on speaks for exactly how much she cares for me." He sneered. "So, obviously she has no problem with going with me now."

All eyes moved to Jenny, and they were **judging **her. She could just feel it. She wanted to tear her hair out, fall to the floor screaming, curl up in a ball of sobs - **anything** but stand here beside Julian staring at the floor. But she couldn't.

She knew exactly what he was doing, and she was thankful for it. He really was trying to get them to leave peacefully. They were the ones making it difficult - they were the ones putting their lives in danger. She wanted to scream that at them, but then they would realize that the reason she was going with Julian was because he had threatened them, and they would fight for her. She didn't want them to get hurt.

"Jenny… You don't really want to go, do you?" Audrey, who had been silent until now, sounded like she believed this tale just as much as she believed in Santa Claus. Jenny looked up pleadingly - but that was a big mistake. It gave Audrey her answer. "I don't know what you told her you'd do, Julian. But we're not going to let you threaten her into going anywhere." Her friend snarled.

"Yeah! I'm still waiting for that rematch, demon boy!" Dee fell into fighting stance beside Audrey, "You and me, no powers, fair and square." Her voice dripped with confidence.

Jenny's eyes shot up to meet Dee's, and her tall friend gave her a cheeky grin. "No, guys! Please-"

"We're going to help you, whether you like it or not." Dee replied. "We were all involved before, and we'll all be involved now."

"I don't quite like this whole idea-" Michael started.

"Shut up, Michael." Tom growled, coming to stand beside Dee and Audrey. Michael sighed and fell into the steadily forming line of people planning to face Julian, followed by Summer.

Julian snorted in disgust. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you. Jenny specifically requested that I don't hurt any of you, that this should be between just us this time." He turned to glance at Jenny, who was completely shell shocked, "I'm sorry, love, but it seems like that is not going to happen after all."

Jenny's gaze shot to him right then. Anger - Anger that she had forgotten - Anger that had built up from all of the past games - Anger rekindled deep inside her. And now it was a blazing forest fires, stories high and hot enough to melt metal. She shrieked and threw herself at him, aiming punches at anywhere she could reach.

Julian shouted in surprise - shouted again when Dee joined Jenny. Audrey and Michael managed to haul the blonde off of the Shadow man, though this was a very difficult task. For a moment, they watched Dee land well timed kicks and hard punches, but then they were running to the front door. The only thing on any of her friends' minds was getting Jenny out of here.

The instant before they reached the broken doorway, there was a cry of pain from the living room and something falling to the floor. It was obvious to all of them that Julian had had no trouble knocking Dee out. Julian was suddenly standing the door, looking every bit a demon. The five skidded to a stop, but afterwards, could do nothing but stare.

"I already told you, Jenny. I am **really** tired of these games. You will not win and all of this is just a waste of time. Surrender, before I have to kill anyone." Julian snarled, taking a step towards the group.

Jenny's heart was thudding fast and hard in her throat. Her limbs felt like ice, and her head felt faint. No, she couldn't let him kill her friends. She would do anything to keep them safe. She **had **to do this. Someday, her friends would understand that it was for the best - when all of them were alive and safe and happy.

"Guys." She started slowly, stepping out of the rest of the group, "I have to go with him. Please stop trying to stop us. We have to go before he decides to do anything really bad."

"He's already doing something bad!" Summer shouted, "You can't just let him take you! We'll never see you again!"

"But it's for the best. This way, nobody dies, and everyone ends up happy."

Audrey put a hand on her shoulder, "Except for you. **You** won't be happy."

Julian snorted, "Of course she will. I will be there making sure of it every day."

"Shut up." Audrey sent the Shadow man a surprisingly sharp look. And even more surprisingly, he did as he was told. He had never been spoken to like that (by a human, that is), and her attitude shocked him. "Jenny. Do what you feel you'll be happy with. We will gladly fight for what you want."

Jenny took a deep breath and held it in an attempt to force herself to not cry, "Then I choose to go with Julian."

"Jenny!" Tom cried.

"I know what I'm doing." She said loudly before Tom could protest anymore, "And besides, he supposedly loves me. How bad could it be?" This was more for trying to force herself to believe this was best decision, but she wouldn't let anyone know that.

For a long moment, her friends were silent. But finally, Audrey let her hand fall from Jenny's shoulder. Jenny turned to face her friends. They were all giving her heartbroken looks. It made her heart lurch, and made this whole thing much harder to go through with. But she repeated to herself that this had to happen.

"After I leave, break a lot of things. Tell my family that it was like that when you got here, and lead them to believe I was taken during a burglary." She instructed. Her friends looked down sadly, but some nodded.

"We'll miss you." Summer murmured.

Jenny really did start crying then, and through herself into the smaller girls arms. "I will too."

"Then don't go!" Tom shouted at her, "You don't have to do this for us! We will gladly fight him until each one of us **dies."**

"But I can't! **Okay**?! I can't watch my friends dying! You know he'll take you out one by one, until it's only me left, and then he'll take me anyhow! I would much rather go now, while all of you are still alive!" Jenny yelled back.

"If you really think this is your only choice…" Michael murmured.

"It **is, **Michael." Jenny's voice cracked.

He watched her sadly for a moment, then sighed, looking down, "Then we'll support you. Just… figure out a way to contact us, give us a call or haunt us or whatever it is you have to do in the Shadow World, okay?"

Jenny tried to smile for him. "I promise." She even held up her pinky to seal the deal.

Audrey once again glared at Julian intensely, "You there. You have no **idea **how much I despise you… But, please… Take care of her."

"Oh, I will." Julian chuckled triumphantly, "Soon enough, she'll forget that she even had a dull life like this."

Jenny resisted the urge to punch him in the groin, "Let's go, Julian." She avoided looking at him (or anyone for that matter) as he took her hand and turned to lead her out of her house and away from her friends.

He turned right into the shovel that had been aimed edgewise at the back of his skull. None of them had realized that it was possible to knock out a Shadow Man, but that was exactly what had just been done.

"We have to go. Grab Dee and head for the back door." Zach commanded in a clear, leader-like voice. It surprised everyone into doing exactly what he said immediately.

Nobody had noticed Zach slip away the instant he saw Julian standing in his cousin's living room. He knew exactly where the shovels were kept, and had been biding his time for the perfect chance.

Tom hefted the still unconscious Dee over his shoulder, and the group had just managed to get out the back door when the groaning began.

It wasn't a human sort of groan, like someone in pain. The house behind them was groaning. Terror caused them to turn around, and they immediately regretted it. The walls were literally warping, pushing outwards like the house was a balloon, not a building. The windows were all cracking in horrible spider web patterns, but for now, they all held. The doors, on the other hand - they popped of their hinges violently, but instead of going flying, they merely disintegrated into dust.

Summer suddenly shrieked and started hopping around, looking at the ground - it was turning white, and it was **moving.**

"Dear lord, the grass is turning to maggots!" Michael cried in horror.

Then the horrible groaning, which had gotten steadily louder until it was almost deafening, just stopped. Everything else was continuing to warp and break, but it was all completely silent. Out of the back door way, Julian walked - he was all shadows and glacial eyes.

"Haven't you learned by now that you shouldn't **fuck **with me?"

* * *

**Uh oh, oopsidaisio. I used profanity :P Anyhow, I have the next few chapters plotted out, and from now, this will really start picking up :) That's a good thing. I may just be an ADD reader, but this has been pretty dull for me.**


	4. Fool Proof

**Hi guys c:**

* * *

"Oh god," Came Michael's shaky whisper behind Jenny. Everyone stood frozen in place by Julian's horrible show of power. The ground may have turned white and writhed with maggots, but that was nothing compared to what was going on above.

All around Julian, the world was literally warping and darkening. Shadows all around the yard were becoming clearer and stretching towards him. Up in the sky, even though the sun was out, it had become black as night. The sky hung low, as if it had suddenly become too heavy, and it seemed to shake and shudder with the power surging from the Shadow man before them.

"I think he's tearing the veil." Michael finally managed to continue after a loud gulp. Jenny's mouth went dry.

"But he's not using any runes, he can't be." Tom said sharply - it seemed more like he was saying this to convince himself rather than reprimand Michael.

"Then you tell me what he's doing." Audrey murmured quietly.

"It's… It's an illusion." Tom quickly offered.

Michael was the next to speak, his voice was rising in panic as the scene before them only grew more and more intense, "That doesn't look like it's just an illusion to me."

"But he can't be that powerful, can he? He… wasn't like this before." Zach joined the conversation with a shaky, barely there voice.

"The Shadow men like playing games. He was playing with us, but now he's done." Jenny finally managed to murmur. She could feel all eyes rest on her, but her eyes never left the fire-y blue ones staring at her from the shadows. "We don't know how much power he controls at all."

Suddenly, she regretted not punching Zach in the face the second he hit Julian with the shovel. Maybe at least then Julian would have thought Zach had gotten his just deserts and left her friends alone. Now she wouldn't have been surprised if Julian planned to kill them.

"I am losing my patience with all of this." The horrible shadow before them snarled. His voice was still beautiful and elemental, but hardly human. More like the snarl of a monster in the woods at night, just beyond your vision out in the trees.

Jenny forced herself to be strong as steel. She wanted to protect her friends to the end, and that was exactly what she planned to do, "Then take me. They won't bother you anymore. If you leave my friends unharmed, I will go with you willingly. If you decide to harm them, I will fight you until the very end."

The eyes as blue as the core of a flame blinked very slowly at her, "They are allowed to hit me with a shovel, but I'm not allowed to even **harm **them? My, my, Jenny, that hardly seems fair to me."

"It obviously didn't hurt you," She shot back hotly, "I'm offering myself to you, Julian. Isn't this what you wanted? Don't make me hate you for all time," Her voice shook, but she realized that this might actually help her theatrics at the moment, "I don't **want** to hate you, Julian."

The shadow blinked at her again, harder and faster this time. It was a simple blink, but it told her **a lot **about what was going on in the Shadow man's head right now. She had him right where she wanted him.

His eyes softened, and when he started to speak, it did not have the edge it had before, "Okay. Okay. Fine, I won't hurt them - make them leave right now, and we can finish our business peacefully."

"Thank-" Jenny started, but cut short for a shriek when she was suddenly hauled over someone's shoulder like Dee had been.

"Sorry, but you're just way to scary and monster-like for my cousin to date." Zach yelled over his shoulder as he ran off. The others looked at each other awkwardly for a moment, wondering what happened, before realizing they were alone with Julian and took off after Zach.

Jenny struggled in Zach's grip, "Zach! No! No! No, Zach, no! Let me go! I have to go with Julian!" She cried.

"Do you really want to go with him?" Her cousin asked.

"No." She said before she could actually think of what answer she **should **give him. She realized her mistake and quickly tried to fix it: "But-"

Zach cut her off before she could try to reason with him, "Then I will protect you from that monster."

Her other friends had caught up by now, and Audrey gave her a stern look, "That display back there is reason enough to protect you," She said, "Even without our past with him. If you really don't want to go with him, then don't. You don't have to do it just to protect us. Then you'd be stuck there for eternity, and it'd be hell for you."

"But otherwise, you guys will die!" Jenny cried. Had her friends gone insane? It was either **one **person **lives **in a personal hell (She would never admit that it might not be that bad. Not right now.) , or a whole **slew **of people **die**. She knew the better choice - but why did they refuse to see it too?

"There've got to be other ways to get through this than the ones Julian's given us," Summer said hopefully, "We just have to figure them out."

Jenny looked at her, but simply could not share in the same hope her smaller friend had. She couldn't feel anything but worry. What would Julian do next?

* * *

Julian let them run off. They wouldn't have made it out of the yard if he had willed it, but he simply let them leave. Around him, everything went back to normal, and everything broken in the house fixed itself. Everything looked the same as before his tantrum - he looked like he had before his tantrum.

He ran a hand through his hair and watched them run off and out of sight. He would go after them eventually, but he had to plan first.

Julian didn't want Jenny to hate him. What would be the point in all of this if she hated him? Besides - it would **hurt **him. He remembered all to well the horrible heartbreaking feeling he had gotten during the games when Jenny seemed like she hated him. It had felt like he was shattering, and it was not pleasant whatsoever.

Alright, so he would have to take her with minimal frights and no harm done to her friends. That would make it difficult, but Julian was sure he could do it. They were annoying and persistent little pests, but they **were** only human. What could they do to him? He rubbed the back of his head - he just had to make sure they didn't get a hold of anymore shovels.

Besides, Jenny was willing to go with him as long as it protected her friends. Julian just had to get her alone. Easy as that. It didn't actually take as long as he had been taking to pierce the veil just then - that had all been to show off his power. And it wasn't nearly as… gaudy. Julian would simply disappear with Jenny the first chance he got, and her friends would never hear from her again. After the shovel incident, he wasn't going to be nice enough to let her haunt them from the Shadow World - Julian wanted at least a little vengeance.

He hummed to himself in settlement and headed off in the direction that Jenny and her friends had gone. Hopefully they were fully aware that they could run but they couldn't hide. Otherwise, he'd be a little worried about the level of their intelligence.

* * *

"If we could just figure out a way to send him to the Shadow World and keep him there." Summer sighed quietly.

Zach, on one side of her, wrapped his arm around her shoulder in a comforting gesture. Jenny, on the other side, sighed sadly, but didn't give any input. On the other side of her, Dee was sprawled out, taking up most of the couch.

"Trap him **anywhere** and keep it that way." Audrey corrected from the arm chair across the coffee table from them, "Who cares if it's the Shadow World." She muttered bitterly.

"Yeah, because I'm pretty sure an exorcism isn't going to work." Michael commented dryly when he and Tom walked back in from the kitchen with arms full of soda.

They were currently in Tom's family's living room. His family had been pretty surprised when the group showed up, but were glad to house them and leave them to their own devices after a hasty explanation that Jenny's 'plumbing was out'.

"Yeah, we should probably throw the whole holy water and burning sage out the window. I think he'd probably laugh in our faces and kill us anyhow." Dee groaned. Jenny offered her a sympathetic look - when Dee **had **finally come around, she had a horrible headache. The poor girl looked like she was still suffering the full effects of the pain.

"I think we need to go pagan if we're going to try anything on him." Michael replied.

"And not Nauthiz again - I don't think he'll fall for that one anymore." Jenny offered in an attempt to help. Everyone made some motion of grim agreement at that.

Audrey had pulled out her smart-phone at the exorcism comment, and had been typing something while the others continued talking. Now she looked up, "What about trapping him in a spirit object?"

Everyone stared at her for a long moment.

Audrey looked around with a growing disgruntled look in her eye, "Don't look at me like I'm crazy. I just googled 'how to trap a spirit' and it came up with all sorts of recipes and spells. We could try it." She paused thoughtfully, "Though I don't know what would happen if it didn't work, because then he'd totally know what we're up to and stop us."

"True," Michael grinned at her, "But I think you're on to something. We just need to find something that will force him to leave no matter what - that he can't fight his way out of." He jumped forward, snatching Audrey's phone from her. She gave an indignant cry, and went to get it back, but must have spotted what he was typing, because she sat back down and let him do his work.

The others watched in tense silence for a good twenty minutes while Michael scoured the internet. They all sat up when finally, he brightened and looked up. "I got it. This is fool proof!"

* * *

**So kind of short :P I split what I had into two chapters, but that means hopefully a faster update because I already have part of the next chapter written? Hopefully...**

**Anyhow, next chapter has more Julian action... and Jenny's been a little naughty ;)**


	5. The Notebook

**Hi guys! Sorry it's been so long! School and band and work do not mix well when it comes to writing :(**

* * *

Julian found them in Tommy's backyard. He almost pounced on them right then, had even prepared a speech for them on how very stupid they were if they thought that this was a good way of hiding. However, a hint of suspicion told him to keep quiet and hidden and to get a closer look.

The reason they were out in the open soon became painfully obvious. The group was gathered around a large circle of chalk, drawing whatever that Michael boy told them to. Julian scoffed under his breath. They didn't honestly think they could beat him with a measly little chalk circle, right?

Michael was looking on Audrey's phone at an instructional website. "Okay, now we need to mark the four cardinal directions." Yes, because that was going to help them so much. Chalk circles were weak, and weren't going to help them. He would get Jenny, and there was nothing they could do to stop him.

"The whats?" Dee asked. Julian wanted to laugh - God, they had no idea what they were doing. Hadn't he told them long ago that they shouldn't mess with things they knew nothing about? This would be a perfect example. If the circle actually did anything, it would probably hurt them - not him. But that was the very reason why he decided to stick around instead of creating something to terrorize them, he was worried that the one who would get hurt would be Jenny. He had to admit that even after all the shit she'd put him through, he still very much loved her.

Of course, that didn't stop him from silently laughing at her when that stupid little chalk circle didn't work.

"I don't understand, it's supposed to work!" Michael cried. Hysteria was growing in his voice, "We did everything like it said to! What did we do wrong?!"

"Let me have that." Tom snarled as he snatched the phone away from Michael. He read over the internet page they had on it, occasionally looking back and forth to check the markings they had on the ground. Eventually, he sighed, "This page must be made up bullshit. Was there any other one on there that we could use?"

"It took me like twenty pages before I found that one." Michael murmured in defeat.

"We're done for." Audrey sighed, sharing in on her boyfriend's defeat.

Dee stood up at that and shoved a finger in Audrey's face, "Now you listen here! We're not done for until we allow that." Her finger was replaced by her face so that she and Audrey were nose to nose, "Giving up is letting him win! Do you want that?!"

She received a shocked stare and eventually a slow shake of Audrey's head as a reply.

"Good. Now that that's settled, we need to figure out what we did wrong. Michael, is there anything that you can think of to search that might turn up more results?"

Michael thought for a moment, then snatched the phone back from Tom to start typing various things into the search engine. In the meantime, the others went around checking the runes and other various markings surrounding the circle. Everything looked okay, which left them very confused, because they just couldn't understand why it hadn't worked.

* * *

It was nearly an hour later, "Michael?"

The boy looked up, his expression was hopeless. "Nothing. Just some stupid stuff about finding inner peace and such." He ran his hand through his rumpled hair, "I'm at a loss. I honestly don't know."

Audrey turned to glare at Dee, "How are you feeling now? Still feeling like we hold all of the cards? Because I'm pretty sure he's got **all of them**."

Dee's face turned sour and she seemed like she was about to spit something back at Audrey when Zach cut in, "Guys, this isn't helping anything! You need to calm down! So the chalk circle didn't work, we'll jut have to figure something else out."

"I guess we could just create another door to the Shadow World and then figure out a way to lure him through it…" Michael murmured.

"Doesn't that seem… **really** dangerous?" Audrey asked him incredulously.

He still had that hopeless look on his face, "Well it's all we've got since the chalk circle didn't work."

"I'll lure him into it, then." Tom cut in, "You guys just figure out what you need to do."

At this point, Jenny stood. "No, there's another way." She stopped after that, hot shame was filling her and making it impossible to speak. She really hoped that her friends didn't think too hard about what she was about to tell them - she didn't know if she could stand seeing those judging looks from when she kissed Julian all over again.

"No, Jenny. You have a great life ahead of you. Let me do it - I know I can rile him up enough to get him to chase me." Tom said.

Jenny stared at him for a long moment in utter confusion before she realized that he thought that she wanted to sacrifice herself. "No, no! I don't mean that. I mean, I think I have a way to make the chalk circle work so no one has to sacrifice themselves." There was a chorus of 'oh's and a look of relief in Tom's face. "I have a notebook for my mythology class in my bag at home, I need to go get it."

"I'll go with you," Dee offered. "You can't be alone when Julian's running around."

"Me too, I'll go." Audrey stood up.

Jenny nodded at the two, then turned to look at the others, "Try to stay safe and keep around the chalk circle so Julian doesn't get the chance to mess it up. We'll be back as soon as we can."

Before they could leave, Tom caught her shoulder. She turned to look at him, and he gave her an earnest, worried look, "Stay safe, Jenny." The way her heart thudded at that was a strange reminder of the past - one that Jenny didn't even want to think about.

* * *

Julian was sitting in the living room when they arrived at Jenny's house. The three girls had made quite a scene of themselves by running the entire way there (Dee had led the charge, of course. Enthusiastic as ever.), and found themselves incapable of doing anything but watching him warily as they caught their breath. He waited patiently for them, his eyes shone bright as flame with amusement.

Dee was the first to stand. She squared her shoulders, straightened up and stared hard at the shadow man draped lazily over the nearest armrest. "You can't scare us into anything. Just leave, before I have to show you the door."

Julian's lips slowly curled up, his eyebrows crept upwards, Jenny's heart dropped. He was hiding something, and he obviously felt like he had the upper hand.

"What do you want?" She found herself saying, which completely surprised her. Her nerves were completely gone, she was surprised she wasn't sobbing right now.

"No, no, Jenny. That's the wrong question." Julian clicked his tongue at her. The look of amusement turned sinister. Jenny looked at Audrey and Dee in bewilderment, they looked back at her with just about the same amount of confusion.

She really didn't want to look at him again. Jenny had to tense every muscle in her body before she could manage to force herself to turn and look at Julian again. He made eye contact with her immediately, just out of spite, she was sure. "What do you mean?" She stuttered anyhow. He couldn't make her back down. She may have lost her nerve, but she couldn't let that stop her. Julian **could not **win, not after everything he had put her friends through.

Julian let out a sick chuckle, "The question is: What do **you **want?"

Jenny sucked in a sharp breath. _No!_ They had been careful to guard the chalk circle so he wouldn't mess with it, but it had completely slipped her mind that Julian had probably heard the rest of their conversation…

Julian produced the very notebook they were looking for from behind the armrest, Dee hissed a few choice words, and Audrey and Jenny could only stare. What were they going to do now? They **needed** that book, but Julian probably wanted to play a game for them to get it, and they couldn't afford to do that.

"I must say, Jenny, this is a very interesting notebook," Julian said as he very slowly stood up, "There's so very much about runes and the shadow men in here. It's almost like you've been obsessed with us since the games. Is that true?" Julian had been leafing through the pages of the notebook, but now his eyes flashed up to hers. Jenny felt her heart drop into her stomach. Had he actually gone through it? Read everything? If he had, she was in trouble. Big trouble.

"Just in case I ever had to deal with you guys again. It looks like my forethought had been for good reason." She tried to make her voice as strong as she could, but Jenny would not deny at all that she sounded weak and pathetic.

Julian shrugged at that, a real smile gracing his lips. His eyes returned to the pages, "I'm very fascinated by the massive sections on **summoning **shadow men, particularly the parts about summoning them from the dead." Dee and Audrey's eyes flashed to her in an instant. Jenny wanted to die. "Oh! And is that my name spelled out in runes?" Julian looked up at her with a grin, "I never knew you thought so much about me, love."

She wanted to snap something back at him, or at least inform him that she didn't, but when she opened her mouth, the only sound that came out was a small, strained squeak. Dee and Audrey's mouths dropped to the floor.

Shame was filling her and turning her core to ice while turning her face to fire. This couldn't be happening, it couldn't. Jenny felt like she was betraying her friends and she hadn't even done anything. She could literally feel the waves of judgment rolling off of her friends and it was horrible. She had to do something.

"You won't humiliate me. I won't let you." She stepped right up to Julian, taking him by surprise. His face fell and his beautiful blue eyes grew wide with shock. "My friends won't turn on me. We will stop you. I won't let you win."

"And why not?" He finally murmured, "You were going to earlier this very day." He held the notebook up, "This notebook says a lot about how much you want me to win."

Jenny held as strong as she could, "That notebook means nothing."

"Why can't it?" Julian was leaning in, but Jenny did not back off. She did not look determined at all, but that wasn't going to stop her from forcing herself to be.

"Because you're evil, and I can't give in to you." She replied.

Julian leaned back to study her for a long moment. Eventually, he gave her a slow blink, sighed, and spoke: "Would you like to hear about how I got brought back to life? It's a really interesting story that I've been dying to tell all of you."

"No." Dee growled. Julian and Jenny turned to look at her in surprise, "Give us the book so we can leave."

Julian snarled, "And why should I do that?"

Standing so close to him, she could feel power filling the air like static electricity and she realized that Julian was preparing another tantrum like before. She had to stop him before he could hurt anyone. She span around to look at him again, "What do you want me to do for that book?" And as a second thought, added, "No games, and no taking me anywhere."

He felt really weak at the moment. Julian knew he was about to give in to her, but he just couldn't help himself. He had always loved Jenny, but he had never expected that love to increase tenfold. He hadn't expected Jenny to be this fiery powerful woman when he returned. He knew she was terrified, and he could tell she wanted to cry, but still, here she was, a mere foot from him and facing him off as proud and strong as ever. She was extraordinary.

"Kiss me." He replied. He was so weak. He knew it. But what did it matter? Even with the incredibly detailed, **impressive** notes that were in this notebook, none of it was going to work. And he'd get a kiss out of it - as long as Jenny went through with it.

She did. She grabbed his face and kissed him as hard as she could. It was like how it had been at the end of the games, when she had made it hard and fast and hadn't allowed him to control the kiss - the only difference was that back then, it had been done without feeling, and this time… there was a lot of feeling. It told a lot, and it made Julian very, very happy.

Jenny held out her hand when she pulled back, "Give me the notebook." It was handed to her without even the slightest comment. To her amazement, no comment was made even as the three girls walked out the door. Julian was completely silent.

The silence did not extend to her friends though. As they turned the corner to head back to Tom's, Dee stopped her.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She shouted.

Jenny took a startled breath and tried to step back, but Dee stopped her. "Dee, I- I'm sorry. I-"

"You what?" Audrey snarled. "I can't believe you! Is it really- Were you really trying to summon him?!" She went to grab the book, but Jenny cradled it away from her.

"No! No. I was not going to summon him!"

Dee laughed bitterly, "Then why do you have notes on it, huh? **Why**?"

Something in Jenny snapped, "Because I fantasized about it!" She shouted.

Dee and Audrey watched in stunned silence as Jenny stalked away.

* * *

Julian stared at his hands. He needed to change his tactics. He could not lose Jenny, not this time. He would just go and talk to her. That would work, right? It had to. There had been feeling in that kiss, he just had to appeal to those feelings. Julian curled his fingers into a fist just before he dispersed into mist and shadows. He would go to her now, before her friends could influence her decisions anymore.

* * *

The notes in Jenny's notebook **did** work. As soon as they had made the necessary fixes, it lit up like a light bulb. For a while, everyone stared at it, unsure what to do next. Deep down, none of them had thought this was going to work - but here it was, glowing and ready to go.

"It works." Michael whispered.

"It works." Audrey murmured in surprise.

"It works!" Tom shouted in glee. He laughed brightly and turned to Jenny, " What do we do next?"

Jenny tore her gaze away from the circle to look at him for a second, then looked at the book. "Someone needs to stain the circle with their blood - I will - then we just need to chant this chant right here and it should force him here and then into the Shadow World."

"Well okay." Michael shrugged.

Summer looked worried, though, "Do you really want to cut yourself? I mean-"

"No, it's okay. Maybe since I'm so important to him, it'll be more powerful." Jenny said. She turned to Dee, "Do you have a knife on you?"

She hesitated, but eventually handed over her new river knife. Jenny thanked her and took it. She took a deep breath, then held the blade tightly so it cut into her palm. She hissed in pain, but wasted no time in running over to the circle to stain it with her blood. It glowed even more brightly, and the air sizzled with energy.

Zach passed around the book so everyone saw the magic words, and the chanting started. Julian was within hearing distance, and scoffed when he heard the chanting. What on Earth did they think they were doing this time? Hadn't they already realized this circle was flawed and wasn't going to work? He wanted to roll his eyes.

Stealthily, he moved around the corner so he could see them. Just in time for the circle to flash.

He quickly transformed into his human form and looked around, "**Fuck**!"

Flawed, indeed. The circle had taken Jenny and her friends to the Shadow World.

* * *

**This chapter is not very good, sorry :( I haven't had time to proofread it, but it's been so long that I decided to put it up anyhow. I can go through and edit if you guys want, though**


	6. White Christmas!

**Sorry for taking so long! I have a lot on my plate right now :( But have this really boring update! I promise another one will come ASAP, I felt pretty guilty not updating this for so long... :P**

* * *

Jenny scrunched her eyes against a sudden blast of cold air in her face. She was lying on the ground, she could tell that, and the ground was really, really cold. All around, the wind was whipping and lashing at her, and it genuinely hurt. She tried to open her eyes, but found the task exceedingly difficult. Every time she tried, snow got in her eyes and they stung.

Wait.

Snow?

Somewhere off to her right, she heard someone cough. A hand latched onto her shoulder, "What the hell is going on?!" The voice belonging to the hand yelled over the wind. Jenny latched on to Zach's arm and attempted to open her eyes again.

"I don't know!" Jenny yelled back.

"It didn't work, that's what happened!" Audrey snarled from somewhere behind Jenny.

"Oh, I think it worked fine - on us." Tom snapped from the other side of Zach.

"Is Julian with us?" Summer asked hopefully. There was silence aside from the howling wind as they all waited for a reply. None came.

"Shit." Tom grumbled, "Well what do we do now?"

"Well we're in the Shadow World now," Michael said, "Surviving would probably be a good plan."

"Seeing as I seem to remember that the Shadow men don't really like me?" Jenny added.

"That too." Michael conceded, "I say we find a hiding place before we're discovered."

"If we haven't been already." Someone grumbled, but it was too quite to tell who. Jenny looked around them with her eyes shielded in an attempt to find anything that they could hide amongst. It was hard to do, seeing as no matter where she looked, the wind and snow whipped at her face, and it was very dark anyhow. However, she did manage to discern that they were on a flat plain of some sort. In the distance, maybe a mile or two away, was a rocky formation of some sort. That was probably their best bet.

"I see some rocks that way," She pointed, "Hopefully we can take shelter there."

"Yeah, let's go. I'm starting to get freaked out." Dee grumbled. "We should probably be quiet. I don't think the Shadow men will be planning a very warm welcome, so let's put it off as long as we can."

The group pulled together so everyone was holding on to someone else and set off across the wind swept plain. The ground crunched and shifted under their feet, almost like ice breaking underneath them, but unlike ice, it held - thankfully. Far off, they could hear the sounds of creatures calling out in the wind, or sometimes they got close enough that the group could hear the crunch of their feet in the snow. When this happened, the friends would crouch down and silently hold their breath until it went away.

Everyone's body temperature was dropping quite rapidly. Their pace was getting painfully slow by the time they started to notice the shadows of rocks cropping up around them. Jenny was fairly sure that her hands were frozen down where they gripped Zach's sleeve and Dee's wrist, but she tried to ignore that aspect - already, they were experiencing less wind, and they hadn't even truly reached the formation yet. Just a little farther and-

When they rounded the corner around a particularly large rock spire, the group was faced with lights. There was a house a good hundred yards away from them, hidden from view by the spire.

"What the hell is a house doing here?!"Dee cried from behind her.

"Do you think it's safe?" Tom asked. He was in the lead, and now turned back to look at the group - probably on their opinion on whether he should try to get into the house. The others looked at each other worriedly. Who knew what stuff was meant for in the Shadow World - this place could be a prop for an old game, like Joyland Park had been, or it could be an actual home. The house could make very good shelter and provide a hiding place from both the Shadow Men and the wind... but if it turned out to actually be a Shadow man's home, they would basically be delivering themselves into the enemy's hands.

"I don't like this. It's way too..." Michael trailed off and motioned absently as he tried to come up with a word, "I don't know. This feels like a trap. I don't like it. I think they know we're here."

"And if it isn't?" Tom growled. "Do you want us the just stand here in the open and wait for either the wind and ice to kill us or for the Shadow Men to kill us?" For added effect, something, far off in the snow, let out a shrill, horrible sounding cry. The humans froze, listening with horrible fascination to see if the cry was to come again.

When it didn't, a shudder wracked Jenny's body. She glanced at the innocent looking house before looking back at her friends. They were blue, and all of them were shivering horribly. If they didn't get out of the whether soon, they **would **be dead. "We should sneak around." They all looked at her. "We should figure out if the house belongs to someone, see if it's safe. We can't last out here - our best bet is risking it with the house."

Dee flashed her a grin, "I like your thinking. Here, I'll do it." Before anyone could protest, she had pried her hands free of the others and made a pathetic run across open snow to the house.

Jenny and the others watched with their breath held as Dee circled the house. She paused for a moment, then started looking into the windows. When she reached the third window, she suddenly shrieked - with delight. Dee spun around to face her terrified friends, "Guys! You'll never believe what this house is!"

Hope sprung forth in Jenny's heart and she took a small step forward.

"It's an airtight place! Somewhere where we only ever had to face one Shadow Man! It's the nightmare house, I'm not even joking!" Dee cried.

There were cries of relief all around. In any other situation, the nightmare house from the first game would have been an unwelcome sight, but now it was comforting to know they could hole up in a place that they were at least familiar with.

"Come on, let's find a way in!" Summer called, running forward. Everyone followed and started to make their way around the house in an attempt to find a door (hoping that Julian had created a door). They eventually came upon one - but to their horror, it was purely for decoration. The damned thing was carved into the wall.

"Well what do we do now?" Audrey asked, sounding resigned.

Jenny glanced around at her friends, and tears pricked at her eyes. This was her fault - all of this. If she hadn't come up with that stupid plan to get rid of Julian, they wouldn't be here right now, freezing to death with only a wall between them and safety. If she hadn't wished Julian would return, none of this would have happened. She should have just submitted in the first game, and none of this would have happened to her friends.

"Jenny? What's wrong?" Tom asked, noticing that Jenny's eyes were growing wet.

She whirled around, not wanting her friends to see her breaking down in such a dire situation.

"Jenny! Are you okay?" Dee put her hand on Jenny's shoulder, but she shrugged it off. "Jenny, please talk to us. I know this is hard - it's hard on all of us. But we're all in it together and we're here for you!" There was a chorus of agreement.

"Guys, stop!" Jenny yelled, "This is my fault. I'm sorry, I... didn't mean to..." She couldn't speak over the sudden sobs that wracked her body. They were violent, and she put her hand on the fake door to keep her balance - and it went through the door.

Jenny stopped crying immediately to stare at the sight in shock.

"Your hand... is inside the door..." Michael murmured from behind her.

"Your hand went through the door." Tom noted a little more loudly.

"You hand went through the door!" Summer cried with glee. "Guys, this is great!" Summer jumped up and put her hand on the door - it did not go through and Summer gave it a perplexed moment. "Here, give me your hand." She grabbed Jenny's free hand, then tried to put her hand through the door again. This time it worked.

"Oh my god." Audrey looked at Jenny in shock. "You...You're like a key."

"Julian did actually care for her. I guess this must have been in case Jenny somehow ended up outside the house..." Michael noted.

"Either way, I could kiss him for it." Everyone glared at Dee and she gave a sheepish grin. "**Anyhow**, go, Summer. We'll follow one by one."

* * *

After everyone had gotten inside, they had quickly made it through the house and glanced around for any hidden Shadow Men. It seemed like the place was as air tight as ever. Actually, the place seemed to be exactly as they left it - aside from a trail of destruction they found leading from Jenny's nightmare to the room at the top. Jenny had shuddered when she saw this, knowing exactly what had happened next.

They were now huddled up in the room the game had started in. There had been various blankets that they had found in the nightmares, some smellier than others (Summer refused to touch the ones that came from her nightmare), and they were now buried in them. Outside, the wind howled and snow still rocketed past, but it was nice and warm in here, and they were gradually beginning to thaw out.

"You know, I'm kind of glad this is here. Regardless of the bad memories," Michael commented.

Zach nodded in agreement, "Though I definitely thought the house was gone, after what the paper one looked like."

"I think Julian must have only destroyed the Human World portal, better known as the paper house. Really, this was still here, we just couldn't get to it from the Human World." Michael replied.

"Makes sense," Audrey murmured from her spot cuddled up against Michael. "But you're right, I'm glad it's here. I don't know what we would have done if we had had to stay out there any longer."

"Get frostbite and die?" Dee offered bitterly.

Summer gave her a sour look, "Let's just keep looking on the bright side. We didn't, and that's all that matters."

There was silence after that for a while. Everyone was too exhausted to do or say anything at this point - some were even beginning to nod off. Jenny was definitely feeling the heaviness of her eyelids at this point, but she forced them to stay open. She had a lot to think about, and she needed to figure out what they were going to do next. Obviously, since they hadn't been attacked so far, the Shadow Men were not aware of the fact that her and her friends were back yet. She wanted to keep it that way - at least until they were back in the Human World. After that, she didn't care if those demons found out that she had been here.

The house was definitely going to provide shelter, but soon they would need food, and they also needed some method of escape. She wasn't sure if the house was going to be able to provide her with either of those. Nobody's fear had been food or books on how to get out of the Shadow World.

Jenny was sure that eventually, Julian would figure out what had happened and come after them, but who knew how long that would take, and if he would think to look here. Jenny didn't know how big the Shadow World actually was, but the few glimpses she had gotten of it told her that it didn't fit in a few square miles. It could take Julian days to find them, longer than they could hold out here.

"Jenny."

She blinked out of her deep thoughts and looked around. Everyone else had fallen asleep, except Tom. He was leaning against the wall just below a window looking at her sadly through the dim light.

"You're thinking about what we should do next, aren't you?" He asked.

She nodded.

"And you've already figured out that we don't really know if there is any food here, I bet."

She nodded again, but this time added, "And I doubt Julian kept any books on how to escape the Shadow World around either."

He smiled slightly at that, "It won't take long for them to figure out there's humans amongst them. We don't have long." He nodded to the window above him and sighed, "Do you think we're screwed?" Before she could answer, "Do you really think Julian will save us? I mean, we didn't really help him last time, and we're making it difficult for him again. What if he just gives up? Let's the others have us?"

"We have to hope that he cares more than that." Jenny murmured, though she was beginning to worry the same thing. What if Julian really wasn't coming after them? What if they really were trapped here? She glanced around at her friends. It broke her heart to imagine that within days, they would be dying. "In the meantime, there has to be something we can do." She looked at Tom with determination. Jenny had to at least try to help her friends. There had to be something she could do.

"Well what do you want to do?" His voice was incredulous, but Jenny could see a smile twitching at Tom's lips.

She stood and offered him her hand, "Do you want to help me try to find something that can pass as food and find water? We can also search the books in my nightmare for anything that might help us."

This time, Tom really did smile. "Sure." He took her hand and she pulled him up. Briefly, they glanced out the window - at the ice, snow and shadows of monsters that would soon be hunting them. Then she and Tom turned their backs on the window. That was a matter to be dealt with when it came. For now, they could survive, and hope that the person who knew what he was doing would come after them. That was all they could do.


	7. Enter Shadowmen

**I'm baaaaaaaack! Sorry to those of you who wanted Julian - he'll be back next chapter, I swear!**

**I'd also like to take this moment to thank all of you guys who review. I didn't actually think I would get such a warm welcome on my first fanfic, and reading what you guys have to say makes me really happy c: Thanks you guys**

**Anyhow, on to the fun stuff:**

* * *

The shadow flickered over the snow covered ground at an unnatural pace for a shadow... that moved - if one could say that that in itself was a normal thing. Normally, he would have just moved across the ground in a solid form - it took less energy and he really did enjoy looking at the scenery- but late last night, the normally constant storms had cleared, and with the snow reflecting the unusual amount of the sunshine, it was just too bright out for his taste. Of course, he had seen the Human World before, and it was still very dark here by comparison... But it was definitely still too bright out.

He was on his way to find the others, who had left him alone last night. He wasn't particularly happy that he had to catch up, but it had to be done. They had business to attend to, after all.

However, that business was bumped down in importance when the shadow came across something that was certainly not snow. No, it was something very very different, and it made him very very happy. The shadow had come across blood - human blood inside a human handprint. And whoever was injured had left it recently. Maybe yesterday, before the storm had cleared.

The shadow quickly took shape into the human form he had created for himself. Brilliant silver eyes squinted in delight at the blood, though partially blocked by auburn hair. He grinned, showing still very pointed teeth. He had every reason to grin, too. All around him were indents where bodies and feet had landed, and while the marks weren't very clear, it still told him that there were now quite a few humans in the Shadow World. He looked up towards a huge, rocky spire in the distance. Those indents also told him where they had headed.

* * *

"We brought breakfast!" Jenny held up the load in her arms sheepishly.

When she and Tom had returned from upstairs, their friends had been in a panic. They were immediately yelled at, even called stupid, for leaving the group and doing so without telling the others. Only after that had happened did Michael notice what Tom and Jenny were holding.

"We spent all night rummaging through the nightmares for this - thankfully there **is **more, so dig in." Tom said as he dumped his arm full onto a nearby table. The vase that had been previously occupying the space was moved to sit shamefully upon the floor.

"Wow! This is incredible! Thanks, you guys!" Summer cried with delight.

Dee eyed it with a little more suspicion, "Which nightmare did you find it in?"

"Well most of this is from your nightmare," Jenny set her load down where Tom had put his food, "But we did find some in Summer, Zach and Michael's nightmares too. The rest should probably be fall back food, though. Summer's didn't look like it was rotten, but with a nightmare like that, you never know - we would have to hope Julian wasn't **that** detail oriented. Zach's only has a little - some of his masterpieces have pieces of food in them. Michael's is... well, the plants."

The others crinkled their noses at that. The memory of Michael's nightmare was all too clear in their minds - those plants as a food source would be saved for if they desperately needed them.

"Well let's see what you've got." Michael murmured, shrugging off the last thought.

Tom and Jenny started taking off items from the small table and tossing them to their friends.

"We've got some jerky we found in one of the caves," Tom said as he passed it out, "And some veggies and berries we found in the woods."

"And we even managed to catch and cook a couple fish." Jenny unwrapped the pieces of fish they had wrapped in a dirty pillow cover they had found in her nightmare.

"Man, this is a feast. Thanks you guys!" Summer cried happily.

"You're welcome." Tom sat down with his ration quite happily.

Jenny was a little more hesitant, staring at her food, "Thank Julian." Why would he leave this sort of thing laying around? Had he cared enough back then to feed them if they had really looked for it? If he had, they obviously hadn't noticed - unsurprising, seeing as they had been dealing with their worst nightmares.

At the silence that followed, she looked up. Her friends were staring at her incredulously, and she realized what she had just said probably sounded like. "I mean, he was the one who created all of this food. In the nightmares. For us to find." She quickly backtracked. Her face was painfully hot - she hoped she wasn't blushing too badly. She really needed to stop talking about Julian. She just kept digging herself a deeper and deeper pit. Soon enough, Julian really would win - if the other Shadow Men didn't find them first. After they ate, figuring out a way out of here would need to be the next line of business.

* * *

The language the Shadow Men used amongst each other was comprised of low growls and hisses. To any human ear unlucky enough to catch such a conversation, it would really just sound like something one might here amongst the static of a bad radio signal. It was almost laughable, how simple the language was - especially when compared to the complexity and power that was the Shadow Men.

Of course, in their minds English, French, German, and their old favorite, Latin, were all painfully simple. A simple, stupid form of communication for simple, stupid creatures. Human filth, there was a good reason the Shadow Men hunted them for sport. The vile creatures were so weak and pathetic the Shadow Men wouldn't even dream of treating them as equals.

Even so, the Shadow Men had to admit that humans made it relatively hard to catch hold of them. They had all sorts of defenses - the foremost being the exceedingly difficult to penetrate spirit barriers around their world. It took a lot of work to pierce the veil so that they could snatch one of the pathetic creatures on the other side... It took even more work to do so with relatively little difficulty. Humans were very attached to each other. It was hard to get them into small enough groups that the Shadow Men could catch hold of them.

They watched any human they had targeted for a long time before they could catch hold of it. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though. When they had watched a human for a while, they got to know the poor creature - the nightmares got more personal when they finally did capture the human.

It was rather dull, though. This they were currently discovering as they watched their newest piece of prey surf this thing called 'the web'. That's all this person did, and the Shadow Men were getting pretty bored with it.

One of them groaned when the human switched over to something blue and white on the computer. This was the worst part for the Shadow Men. Watching this person go through stupid 'funny pics' and read about others lives was hell. A terrible hiss escaped the same monster, '_Why can't we take him now? He is doing nothing and I am growing bored_'.

'_We are not strong enough to take another. You know that._'

Energy flared in the room as two pairs of narrowed eyes met. Other eyes peeked out of the mist and darkness to watch the impending squabble - but all was cut off when another Shadow Man entered the room. Tensions set aside, all eyes rested on the newcomer. He was in human form and seemingly out of breath, like he had rushed here.

'_Do you bring us news, young one?_' Snarled a Shadow Man from the back of the group, its crocodile eyes wide with interest.

"Humans." The air in the room suddenly grew icy as everyone froze, "There are humans in the Shadow World."

'_How?_' Another hissed. It glanced around the room, but as no other Shadow Men had an explanation, it was forced to question further, '_How do you know this? Surely we would have noticed if there were humans here._'

"I found human blood in some fresh tracks in the snow. There are several here." Said the silver eyed Shadow Man, quite proud that he had done something his elders had not.

The Shadow Men rushed forward so the auburn haired boy was faced with several pairs of eyes in his face, '_Show us._'

* * *

They had now spent some time in Jenny's nightmare, and she still couldn't get used to it. Just the sight of this basement sent chills up her spine. It was also exceedingly cold in here compared to the front room, but that was simply because they had warmed that room up with their body heat - Julian hadn't bothered to heat this place or anything. Or at least, not the nightmares. But the chill wasn't from the cold, Jenny was still genuinely creeped by her nightmare. And it made her feel guiltier than she cared to be, being that if what went down in this room had never happened, they would have never been in this situation in the first place. It was all her fault.

She and her friends shuffled around the basement, flipping through books of all sorts in hopes of finding something -anything- that might help them get out of here. Julian really had spared no expense in the creation of Jenny's nightmare - all of the books were exactly as they had been in her grandfather's basement. There was not a single line of fake writing or gibberish to be found.

In moving on to another bookshelf, Jenny walked past the closet door, which was wide open. It was untouched from when Julian had burst through, and she shuddered to see blood stains on the floor in front of it. In a way, though, the sheer amount of blood on the floor was a relief - perhaps that meant PC and Slug had not experienced pain before they were imprisoned in Joyland - Oh what was she talking about, of course they had. They suffered **at **Joyland as well. Jenny shuddered and averted her eyes from the horrible amount of blood - only for them to rest on what was on the inside of the closet.

Claw marks.

They were all over the inside of the door and the walls of the closet. Horrible, deep ones. They were made by something obviously not human. Julian had been very angry - and yet, had refrained from killing anyone when he returned (other than PC and Slug). In a way, it was charming, even surprising when compared to how deep these marks were.

Almost in a trance, Jenny walked up to the closet door to feel one of the marks. To think: that could have been her, or one of her friends. She moved her eyes to the inside of the closet again. There were even claw marks in the ceiling and the floor. Julian had been desperate. It was like facing his own nightmare. A taste of his own medicine, per say. She was sure it must have been torture to be stuck in the closet once again. She almost smirked - he deserved it. After all he put them through, no matter how she felt for him all through the ordeal, he deserved it.

In the shadiest corner of the closet, she found her name scratched carefully into the wall. She shuddered once again and immediately retreated from the closet. She didn't want to think anymore about Julian or the games right now - not unless it meant him getting them out of here.

"So what have we found?" Zach asked, looking at the small pile of books on the couch. Small was relative, of course. There were shelves upon shelves of books in here, but they still had a fair number, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, piled on the couch.

"Something's got to be in all of this." Michael mumbled, staring at the pile with dull eyes. "He had to have taken some sort of precaution, right? Just in case something went wrong and he got stuck here?"

"Well, he did seem pretty cautious to me." Jenny shrugged.

"Yeah, we should at least be able to find a spell to fend off the Shadow Men." Zach added.

Dee gave a bitter snort, "Why didn't he use it on the Shadow Men way back when?" She received no reply other than six angry glares.

After a tense moment, Summer gathered a few books up in her arms, "Well I'm figuring that we have some reading to do. Let's go back to where it's at least warm."

Happy to break the tension, Tom followed, "I like your idea."

* * *

Some time later, they took a break from reading to return to Audrey's nightmare for more food. When they returned, they sat down to eat, chatting happily and acting fairly comfortable for sitting in the front room of the nightmare house. Everyone was in fairly good spirits because they had quite a few dog eared pages. They had several good spells that they would soon be trying. Some were spells for piercing the veil between worlds, others were for calling specific spirits to them(Julian). One of the spells had to work - and they'd be out of here and home free without a trouble from the other Shadow Men. Everyone was willing to admit that they would much rather deal with Julian than these beasts.

The level of comfort during the meal became so extreme that at one point, they were laughing and yelling and throwing a particularly nasty piece of fruit they had found at each other. It had turned into a fun game of hot potato, and for a moment, their troubles were forgotten.

Until they heard a thump on the roof.

Everyone stopped and listened. The sound didn't come again.

"What was that?" Michael asked shakily.

"The house settling or snow falling off that big rock outside." Tom answered a little too quickly.

There was silence again as they listened for any other sound.

"It was definitely outside. Not upstairs." Zach murmured.

"Shut up. You're freaking me out." Michael hissed, his voice was starting to get uncomfortably high and strained.

Something skittered across the roof and down an outside wall. Whatever it was, it was large and sounded like it had claws.

"Julian?" Jenny whispered hopefully.

Dee shook her head slowly, "I don't think Julian spends his free time pretending to be a demon squirrel."

"Anyone afraid of squirrels?" Summer asked dryly.

Tom had retrieved a rather sharp wall sconce from the stair case and now came to the center of the room, crouched in fighting stance and ready to use it. Zach followed his lead, as well as Audrey.

"Do you think they found us?" Audrey murmured.

Michael shuddered, "Please don't even think like that."

"Someone pull out a spell, just in case." Dee growled. Jenny jumped into action.

They stood still and tense for what seemed like an eternity. Nothing further was happening outside, aside from the howling wind and the snow rocketing past. Jenny had gone through a good six spells, trying to memorize them, before everyone started to relax.

"I think whatever it was is gone." Audrey said. Her eyes shifted to the still shaking Michael and she smiled at him reassuringly. Jenny looked up for a second to glance over the windows. Seeing nothing that really bothered her, she returned to memorizing this next spell.

Dee huffed in relief and fell out of her fighting stance, "Maybe it was just a curious Shadow critter checking out the house."

"I just hope whatever it is won't come back." Michael murmured, his voice was shaky.

Tom stepped over to Jenny to read over her shoulder, "How's that going?"

"If they come, I think I can hold them off for a bit, but most of these spells are short lived. We're not going to get very far with them if we end up having to use them." Jenny explained. She was still very tense. It was unnerving to see how extensively her grandfather wrote about how these spells should **not** be plan A - which was exactly what they were about to be used as.

"Do you think sharp objects are going to help us much?" Zach asked, flipping the wall sconce in his hand. Jenny looked up at him sadly.

"Do you really want to get that close to a Shadow Man?" Audrey asked him incredulously.

"Well you never know what you'll have to-"

Summer screamed.

Everyone froze and looked at her. She had fallen to the floor. Her eyes were far too wide and her face was far too pale - and she was pointing at the window behind Jenny. Everyone's gaze shot to it.

A pair of silver eyes stared back at them, paired with a grin twisted enough to make a serial killer cry.


	8. He's Back!

**Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter! Before we get to that, though, I'd like to thank my reviewers for being amazing and wonderful. Also, I have a link on my profile to a terrible doodle of the three Shadow Men Julian mentions earlier since one of them made an appearance last chapter if anyone's interested. Yup, that's about it.**

* * *

Momentarily, there was a rip in the air. It was bright but dark at the same time, and it pulsed with energy and poured mist. It was only open for a moment while the mist finished spilling through and began congealing before it closed with a loud, horrible screech the sounded like metal being torn apart. The mist congealed further, formed into a vaguely human shape, and eventually became Julian.

He dusted himself off with a disapproving frown. He didn't particularly like traveling between worlds. It was a little hard on even a spirit's body, and it frankly just made him uncomfortable. Not to mention that he was already in a bad mood - Really, how stupid did Jenny and her friends have to be? Who knew what situation they were in right now.

He glanced across the wasteland before him. It was day time out, and the almost perpetual storms had cleared for a little, so it was relatively bright out - something quite a lot like dusk in the Human World. He could see ominous black thunderheads moving in from the north, and while he normally didn't mind the weather, he wished they would stay north for as long as possible. He had a feeling that the Shadow World's weather would not be helpful in trying to find the humans.

In front of him was nothing. A flat expanse of dark grey stone, snow and ice. He could see for miles, and there was not a single sign of life, not even that of other Shadow Men. Obviously Jenny and her friends weren't **here**. Julian dissolved into a shadow and quickly flitted across the ground in the opposite direction of the storm clouds in hopes that they would be this way. Damn that girl, he needed to put a tracker on her.

He wished that his powers were actually what they seemed to be to the humans. He wished he could simply want to be with Jenny and he'd appear by her side, but that just wasn't how it worked. To be able to simply appear by her side, he would first have to have a slight idea of where she was. If he could get near enough to sense her, he could transport himself - but the getting near enough part was the problem. The Shadow World was a big place, and Jenny and her friends could be anywhere.

He very nearly shuddered. **Anywhere **was just such a threatening word. He was fully aware that the other Shadow Men could find the others before he did. He was fully aware of what would happen if they could finally get their hands on Jenny without his interference. He hoped with all of his might that he could get to her first.

He was even worried for her friends at this point. They weren't in quite as much danger as Jenny (the Shadow Men only wanted vengeance on her, after all), but they would still be maimed and tortured for all eternity if the Shadow Men got to them first.

He pushed himself to move faster. That was why he **had **to get to them first. He needed to. It was going to be a hard task, seeing as he had wasted so much time already, but he **had **to get to them first.

Their chances were already plummeting. It had already been three hours that they had been in the Shadow World. Julian had been a terrible time waster, first checking to see if the chalk circle was going to take them to a specific place (it wasn't), then needing to go hunting just so that he could gain enough energy to pierce the veil again.

Who knew how he was going to do it again if he found Jenny and her friends. He had no energy left, and he was betting Jenny wasn't going to let him just eat her friends. Even if he really wanted to. Especially Michael. God, that boy was stupid. He of all people seemed like he knew at least a little about what he was doing, what would possess him to make a **chalk circle**? Julian had half the mind to kill the boy the second he found him - or at least hand him off to the other Shadow Men. That fate would be far worse and at the moment, the blue eyed boy was rather liking the idea. It would sure teach Michael to put his precious Jenny in danger like this again.

The very inhumane part of him whispered quietly that he should do the same with Tommy. Just in case. Get him out of the way so he couldn't interfere again. Zach too, the little fucker had hit him in the head with a shovel after all. It still **hurt** too. That boy had an arm on him. Julian wouldn't mind watching him try to use that arm when faced with a hundred Shadow Men. Hell, send them all off to the Shadow Men. They had all gotten in his way at some point. He could make it look like he had tried to save them. If he played the hero, Jenny might run crying to him - and then he'd **have **her. She'd be his forever more.

Julian stopped himself.

He mentally slapped himself as sense finally returned following the cooling down of his rage. No, no one was going to be passed off to the other Shadow Men. Jenny would be heart broken, she would never be able to forgive herself. It would scar her for the rest of her life, and Julian didn't want that kind of weight on her shoulders. Besides, no matter how much he disliked her friends, none of them deserved what would happen to them if he did such a thing.

It was going to suck trying to go against his elders (once more) to try to save them-

He stopped his thoughts to concentrate and look for any presence as he checked out a massive outcropping of rock he had come across. Nothing.

-but it was the only way to get Jenny out of this situation without completely ruining her life. He figured it would be easier than last time, at least. Last time, in Joyland, he had been battling himself over whether he should be the good guy like Jenny wanted, or to stay the bad guy like his instincts urged him to be. Trying to battle that out and fend off the others had proven to be too much. But this time he wasn't afraid to play hero - especially if it meant finally getting Jenny. He didn't need to have any of those stupid internal conflicts again. He just had to focus on the singular task of protecting Jenny.

He checked a cave.

If he could **find ** Jenny. He hadn't gone very far, but the fact that this search wasn't turning up much was making him panic.

Once again, he sped up his pace. Now he was straining at his very limits as he frantically searched every formation he came across. Time was ticking by and he was painfully aware of how quickly it was passing.

* * *

"Hello Julian!" If it was possible to scare a Shadow Man, then Julian would have jumped out of his skin. He took his human form and turned to glare at whoever was stupid enough to bother him while he was searching. Sitting on a boulder nestled against the opposite wall of the cave was his least favorite of the new Shadow Men. Aiden smiled when their eyes met, his red and chapped lips pulling back over pointed, uneven and rotting teeth.

_'What do you want?_' Julian hissed, stepping past the boy to leave the cave.

Chapped red rimmed eyes widened as Aiden after him, seemingly always surprised by Julian's coldness. "Is something wrong? Would you like to talk about it?" Had it been any other one of his brothers, the questions would be mocking and hateful. Aiden was completely infuriating in how he acted like a caring human half the time, even if the boy was completely evil. Aiden grabbed his arm to turn him, and for a moment blue eyes met silver ones. The auburn haired boy smiled at him again. "You can tell me, I'm the nicest of our brethren!" Bullshit.

_'If you have nothing important to say, leave me be. I don't have time for your stupidity._' He didn't understand the boy's need to speak English around him, but Julian wasn't going to put forth the effort of returning the favor for someone he despised so greatly.

Aiden hung back a bit to watch Julian with a frown and narrowed eyes, "I was just going to found you that we found a bunch of humans. It's a feast. Not that you deserve that info or anything, though."

Julian spun on the boy, '**_Where?_**_'_

The boy grinned maliciously, knowing full well that now Julian was hanging on his every word. He must have been hungrier than he let on. "Why should I tell you? I don't really think I need to be nice to you when-" He was cut off when the older Shadow Man rushed forward and seized him by the throat.

'_Tell me now, you little piece of shit, before I rip your shiny little eyes out of your head._'

Aiden rolled his eyes, "Oh the terror. I'm not afraid to be ugly like our brethren." His chapped lips pulled up into a grin that showed his teeth, "Not all of us as lucky as you, anyways."

Julian snarled, squeezing tighter.

"You're not scaring me. But I like you - they're in your little house that our brethren hate so much." Aiden said, "Not sure how much is left. You might be able to scrounge up some scraps..." But Julian was already gone. Aiden scratched his head, "Well that was a little odd." He shrugged. Maybe Julian was just really competitive. He'd be all over the house too, if he stood a chance of getting any of the meat that laid inside.

* * *

A million horrible scenes flashed across his mind's eye in the instant that it took Julian to transport himself into the front room of his nightmare house - but none of them prepared him for the sickness he felt at the sight of the room busted and clawed up. Windows were broken, furniture smashed, the wallpaper clawed the shreds. But there wasn't any sign of blood... yet.

He shot upstairs as a black shadow.

The chase that had obviously taken place led to Jenny's nightmare - though the scene within was far worse than her fear could have even dreamed to be. The room was swarmed with Shadow Men - all revolving around a hastily made circle surrounded by poorly drawn runes. The only thing protecting his precious Jenny and her friends from the swarm was a flimsy protection spell that was bound to break any moment now.

His mind scrambled for something, **anything**. He had to do something now, or the humans would be dead for sure.

One of the shelves nearby caught his eye and before the thought had passed through his mind as a fully formed sentence, he rushed to it and grabbed an item off of it. He dangled the chain so the Star of David hung in plain sight. One breath to steady his nerves was all the preparation he took. Then he forced as much energy into the talisman as possible. The room seemed to freeze for a moment as a massive amount of energy collected into the small item - then it blasted free in a wave that shot through the whole house. The energy hit the Shadow Men like a speeding train. Some still had enough air to shriek in pain, but most simply went into shock as the wave shot them through of the house's walls and slammed them against the rocks outside.

Julian clutched at his ribs, wheezing badly. He dropped the talisman and hunched over. The pain was unbelievable - like nothing he had ever felt before. He knew that the Star of David could be used to ward off evil, but he had never realized it was that powerful. Was this what it felt like before a human passed out? Or vomited? Both?

**No**, he didn't have time for that right now. He had to pull through this before the others did.

Still wheezing and reeling from the shock, he stood and stumbled past the circle where the humans were still cowering. They looked completely unaffected by the talisman - no surprise, why would it hurt its creators?

Julian traced a series of runes into the wall and whispered their names quickly, followed by a little bit of Latin - just as a safety precaution in case the Shadow Men got past that too quickly. He pumped a little energy into the house and - good as new. Though Julian worried how good 'good as new' was - hopefully his defenses lasted long enough to get Jenny out of here. He was just as powerful as the others, and could therefore create just as powerful spells, but there was just so many of them... Where had they all come from? He'd never seen that many Shadow Men after one hunt in his entire life! They must have become really bitter about Jenny in the time that he was dead.

Speaking of Jenny, he turned to look at her. She was staring at him with wide, wet, but still beautiful eyes from inside the circle. Her friends made no move when, after she made eye contact, she dashed out of the circle and over to him.

Julian smiled, happy to see she was okay, then collapsed and slid down the wall to the floor.

"Julian!" Jenny hugged him, then looked him over worriedly, "What just happened? What did you do?"

"The Star of David can be used as a talisman to ward of evil. The definition of evil is a Shadow Man, you know. I warded of the Shadow Men - but I **am **one of them. Can't avoid getting hurt." He said after a moment of trying to catch his breath. He shook his head, thinking that Jenny and her friends must have been the only humans to **ever** see a Shadow Man weakened - multiple times(and every time seemed to be him, was this a reflection on his prowess at being a Shadow Man?)!

Jenny watched him worriedly, then turned to look at her friends, who were starting to cautiously move out of the circle.

"I see you figured out how to use the runes for more complicated spells. You're progressing, good job." Julian managed to sit up straight. Jenny looked back at him, and found that he was smiling lazily at her, his eyelids drooping heavily - she still caught the luster of pride in them, though.

"We had just enough time before they broke in to run up here and find something to help us." Jenny murmured, shuddering at the memories of the very recent attack. Instead, she smiled slightly, "Thank you, Julian. For risking yourself to save us." She looked up at him, "I knew you had good in you." She was sure that would anger him, so she quickly continued, "I owe you."

She was fairly certain that was the first time she had ever seen Julian really and truly blush.

* * *

**So this was a weird chapter. Sorry that it's kind of bad :( And the weird stuff about the Star of David is trufax, yo. Supposedly you can use it as a talisman to ward off evil - 'ward off' being the important part. They've averted the Shadow Men for now. Let's see how long that lasts c:**


End file.
